Amanda's Dream
by rankamateur
Summary: What if Amanda had remembered the dream she had after eating the drugged sandwich. What if the dream came true?


The Dream  
  
By rankamateur  
  
Scarecrow and Mrs. King belong to Warner Bros. and Shoot The Moon Enterprises Ltd. No infringement of their rights is intended.  
  
Rated G  
  
Summary: We know that Amanda had a dream, a very romantic dream, while under the influence of the drugs ingested in the sandwich. What if she had remembered that dream? What if the dream were more than a dream? Strictly off the wall (AU)  
  
Time: At the end of DOA (written by Robert Bielak)   
  
_________________________________________________  
  
"You're all looking at me awfully strangely. I hope I didn't do anything embarrassing."  
  
"No," Lee assured her.  
  
Billy and Francine each thought of some very important task that needed doing, immediately. As Francine was about to leave the room, she handed Amanda her purse.   
  
"You left this at Lee's."   
  
Amanda wondered aloud when she had been in Lee's apartment. She couldn't remember anything that had happened after she had eaten his sandwich.  
  
Lee stopped Francine and asked if she had seen a baseball when she had been at his place.   
  
"No." She hadn't.  
  
Amanda checked the contents of her purse and... "Lee, a hardball, with Ty Cobb's signature?"  
  
"Yeah" Lee replied.  
  
Amanda tossed the ball up in the air for him to catch. "You've been keeping it in my purse again."  
  
  
Fronan had said that there was a possibility that Mrs. King might have some 'flashbacks' of the events of the day, but - he wasn't sure.  
  
  
It was decided, over Lee's objections, that it would be safe for Amanda to drive herself to Arlington.  
She arrived home, looking as tired as she felt. It took only a few minutes and a solemn promise to Philip and Jamie that she would take them to Goofy Golf tomorrow night, to appease the boys.  
Dotty, after being assured that Amanda would be fine and just needed rest, decided that she would go to the showing of "Casablanca" at the Revival Theatre.  
  
After getting the boys to bed and taking a long, hot bath, Amanda tumbled into bed and fell into a deep sleep. She woke and realized that it was still dark out. The clock read 3:00 AM. She had been having the strangest dream, which she could recall in surprising detail. She and Lee were in his apartment, which was illuminated by the soft glow of seemingly dozens of candles. They were each dressed in white evening wear (he looked gorgeous, she thought). Lee poured champagne and talked about Amanda having to leave on an assignment, some place where he could not accompany her. She had responded that she didn't want to leave him and '....what about tonight...the way they felt about each other...'  
Lee had given her a token of his feelings, a baseball, signed by Ty Cobb.   
  
"Here's lookin' at you, kid." he said and then they had kissed, a deep and passionate kiss - not at all like the sweet, gentle kisses they had shared at the end of their phony marriage ceremony on San Angelo.  
  
'Oh my gosh,' Amanda thought. 'Where did that come from?'   
She knew were the line "Here's lookin' at you kid" came from. It was from the film Casablanca.   
'Why would Lee say that to me? He's never been one for quoting lines from movies, not that I can remember anyway. Weird!'  
  
Amanda was well aware that her feelings for Lee were gradually becoming much more than just friendship. She had to keep reminding herself that falling in love with Lee Stetson was -er - would be - a big mistake. She wasn't his type and he had made it perfectly clear, on more than one occasion, most recently after they returned from San Angelo, that they were playing their covers, just doing their jobs and there was nothing more to it.  
  
No matter how she chided herself for being silly and indulging in wishful thinking, The Dream, persisted. She dreamt it at least once a night, sometimes twice.   
As the days, or rather nights, passed - the actions remained clear in her memory, although some of the details seemed to change a bit with each repetition, but one thing, well two things, were always the same - the kiss, that wonderful kiss. The second thing that was always the same was the fact that it was just a dream. She always woke up, in her room, in her bed and quite alone. Amanda realized that she didn't seem to remember the words as vividly as she had at first, but she did recall: '....I can't leave....the way we feel about each other...' And Lee saying something about '....not amounting to a pile of chicken salad....' 'Chicken salad?' That didn't sound like Lee. In fact, it didn't sound like anybody. Not amounting to a hill of beans, now that was an old expression, but chicken salad?  
Lee also says something about '....getting in the way...' and 'asking her mother..'   
What would she have to ask her mother about, for Heaven's sake.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Lee approached Amanda in the Bullpen. Billy had an assignment for them. Just a simple security detail at a party. Since her family would be home, it was decided that Amanda would meet Lee at his place and they would drive to the Embassy in his car.  
When she arrived, wearing a new, lovely white evening dress, Lee was ready and waiting for her. He was wearing a white dinner jacket.   
  
"You look beautiful in that dress." he said with a wink.  
  
Amanda blushed, as usual, and reciprocated the compliment.  
  
The party was mercifully short and after only a few hours, the two agents were on their way back to Lee's apartment.  
  
***********************************************************  
  
"it's pretty early," Lee observed. "why don't you come up for a nightcap?"  
  
"Sure, I'd love to." 'Well, here we are, in Lee's apartment and we're both dressed in white, but no candles and no champagne.'  
  
Lee brought in an ice bucket with a bottle of a very nice champagne chilling in it.  
  
'OK, now we have the champagne too.'  
  
Just then, all the lights went out. Amanda jumped, startled at the sudden darkness.  
  
"It's OK," Lee reassured her. "They are doing some construction work near here and we have had - I don't know how many black-outs since it started. It's happened often enough that I decided to buy a flashlight, the kind that plugs into a wall socket and turns on automatically when there's a power failure. It's not quite enough light, though. Hold on and I'll get some candles."  
  
He found a half dozen candles and lit them, placing them strategically around the room.  
  
'Well, now we're in his place, dressed in white, champagne chilling, with the candles glowing, but it's not exactly the same. There were so many candles in the early dreams - it was practically a fire hazard!'  
  
"So, anything special planned for this week?" Lee asked.  
  
"No, well, on Friday, Mother and I are taking the boys camping for the weekend. Hey, why don't you come along?" Amanda had asked *that* without thinking.  
  
Lee looked at her, a bit surprised by the invitation.   
"Oh, camping isn't exactly my *thing*. I'd just be in the way. Besides, I couldn't just show up. You'd have to ask your Mother first."   
'..be in the way?.......ask your mother?....' Those phrases sounded very familiar.  
  
"Amanda, you know that baseball, the one signed by Ty Cobb?"  
  
"Yes, of course." She had found it in her purse at the end of the Retzig case. That lost day - she shivered and thought about an old movie, "The Lost Weekend". In her case it was only one day but she believed she knew how that poor alcoholic had felt.  
  
"Well, Lee continued, do you think your boys would like to have it?"  
  
"Oh, Lee, that must be very valuable. You can't just give it away. What if the boys forgot and took it outside and played with it? You'd never forgive them or me."  
  
"Ah, come on. It's just a baseball. I'd like them to have it."  
  
"Well, maybe someday. We'll talk about it some other time."  
  
"OK, but really, I would like them to have it."  
  
Lee took a glass, handed it to Amanda and poured a little champagne. He poured a glass for himself and, setting the bottle back in the ice bucket, he took a sip. Then he put his glass on the table and leaned forward, looking deeply into Amanda's eyes, which had grown wide with anticipation. He kissed her, softly at first and then with increasing intensity.   
She was ecstatic, incredulous and a hundred other emotions, all at once. It was....a dream come true! Or was it only a dream? The Dream - again, just a slightly different version. She wanted to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming.   
'Why bother,' she thought sadly, 'it's gotta be a dream. I'll wake up soon, at home, in my own bed. I know it's too good to be real! Shoot!'  
  
************************************************************  
  
Amanda was awakened by the harsh buzzing of the alarm clock. She lay there for a minute, trying to remember....did she just dream that dream again, with another little variation?  
Probably. She thought she had been at Lee's apartment after the party but it was getting to the point where she really wasn't sure where dreams stopped and reality began. But it seemed so real! It still seemed real - even now - in the cold light of day.  
Maybe she needed to see the Agency shrink.  
  
After a long shower, she put on her big terrycloth robe, grabbed a towel to dry the places the robe didn't cover, and went back into the bedroom. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she glanced at the dresser and noticed her evening bag. It looked a bit odd. There seemed to be a rather large, sort of round object in it.   
  
'Gee, I hope nobody sneaked a hand grenade into it at the party last night!'  
  
Laughing at herself for such a silly thought, she opened the purse and.....'OH MY GOSH!'  
  
There was a baseball, a hardball, signed by the one and only - Ty Cobb!  
  
Her eyes widened briefly and she chuckled softly. She tossed the ball in the air and deftly caught it with one hand.   
  
'Let's see now, how do you hold this thing in order to throw a curve ball?'  
  
The End 


End file.
